Promote Your Posts for Easy Advertising on Social Media

Recently, I checked my Twitter feed and saw a Tweet from Javelin Strategy, sandwiched in between Tweets from my best friend and my favorite magazine. I don’t follow Javelin Strategy. I don’t know what Javelin Strategy is. Or, I didn’t a few days ago. Now, I can tell you that Javelin Strategy is a financial strategy and research firm. I know this because Javelin Strategy infiltrated my carefully-curated Twitter feed by paying for a promoted post.

For a small fee, businesses can discretely advertise on Twitter and Facebook with promoted posts, guaranteed to reach more people than a standard post. Twitter states that these Tweets “amplify messages to your followers or users who are like your followers.” I don’t follow Javelin Strategy on Twitter, but I do follow a few business magazines and a friend who works as a finance journalist. I am, apparently, just like a Javelin Strategy follower, and therefore I’m the target audience for a promoted post. This works a little differently on Facebook: instead of reaching brand new people, Facebook will show a promoted post to more of a page’s existing audience, bumping it up in news feeds. Friends of people who have interacted with the post are also more likely to see it.

On both Facebook and Twitter, a promoted post looks just like a regular post, with a small message at the bottom alerting readers to the fact that the post was sponsored. It’s a little bit genius, because audiences are more likely to read a Tweet or a Facebook post than an ad, and companies don’t have design and implement a unique advertising campaign—just a brief, well-crafted message.

The concept of promoted posts plays out different on each platform. On Twitter, a business can promote a Tweet, a trend (denoted with the #), or an account. This allows you to broadcast your message in different ways; you can decide if you want people to read a specific Tweet, check out what others are saying about a topic, or follow your company’s account.

Both Facebook and Twitter offer a flexible billing structure for promoted posts. Twitter uses cost-per-click and cost-per-follower pricing, while Facebook lets you set a budget based on how many impressions a post will make at a certain price point. Both platforms track performance using simple, visually attractive analytic infographics, so you can keep tabs on your campaign.

One caveat on Facebook: promoted posts are only available to pages with 400+ likes. If you want to try a promoted post, start by building a community of supporters and customers on social media. Once you’ve got an audience, determine your key messages and start promoting!

Facebook and Twitter have incredibly detailed, helpful guides about promoted posts. For further reading:
https://business.twitter.com/en/advertise/promoted-tweets/
https://www.facebook.com/help/152415241565635/

Image Credit: Facebook and Twitter